A joint operation between the Public Ministry, Federal Revenue, Civil Police and Military Police was launched in the state of Minas Gerais on Tuesday (2) to investigate a scheme of tax evasion, money laundering and ideological falsehood. The scheme includes major supermarket chains, wholesalers and other retail companies.
15 search and seizure warrants were executed in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area and in the central west of the state, at corporate headquarters and homes of businessmen and employees involved in the fraud and money laundering scheme. One of the targets of the search and seizure orders is businessman Marcos Valerio, who was convicted by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) in 2012 as an operator of a monthly payment system. Valerio is serving his prison sentence in Nova Lima, in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area.
During the inspections, mobile phones, electronic devices, documents and other items were seized, including luxury cars used for money laundering. The Minas Gerais State Inter-Institutional Asset Recovery Commission (CIRA-MG) also obtained the unavailability of the assets of the persons being investigated, worth R$476 million.
According to the Public Ministry, investigations revealed a tax fraud scheme, where retail entrepreneurs created shell companies to simulate interstate operations and suppress the payment of their ICMS and ICMS owed to replace taxes that should be paid to the State of Minas Gerais.
This scheme artificially lowered the cost of goods, increasing the profits of the groups involved, distorting competition and harming legally operating companies. It is estimated that the damage to the country exceeds 215 million Brazilian reals.
The operation included the participation of six public prosecutors, three delegates from the civilian police, 58 auditors from the State Revenue Service, two auditors from the Federal Revenue Service, 65 military police officers, 54 civilian police officers, 9 military firefighters, and 15 public prosecutors.
As reported by G1, in the document that supported the searches, Marcos Valerio was defined as “participant in the executive core of the criminal organization, enjoying hierarchical superiority compared to others being investigated.” Sources interviewed by TV Globo stated that he coordinated the scheme that helped companies evade taxes.
Marcos Valerio’s defense informed G1 that he “was always fully available to the authorities to provide explanations, basing his conduct on legality, transparency and cooperation.” He stressed that during the search and seizure operation that took place at the home of the person being investigated, “no material of an illicit nature was found.”
Among the companies targeted by the operation was the “Coelho Deniz” chain, which operates in the eastern region of the state and owns 25% of the shares of “GBA”. The Coelho Diniz family said in a statement that the Coelho Diniz supermarket chain “is not a target of the investigation, just as the Coelho Diniz family’s investments in GPA are not a target.”